


20 questions

by jessamoo



Category: The Night Shift (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Flashback, Memories, Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 11:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2022651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessamoo/pseuds/jessamoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TC reveals a memory of him and Jordan during 20 questions</p>
            </blockquote>





	20 questions

TC checks his watch for what seems like the millionth time, tapping his foot on the ground. They’re waiting in the ambulance bay on an ambulance that was supposed to be there at least ten minutes ago. It’s still sunny enough for him to want to be inside, he’s tired from being out drinking again, and his cheek has a large, violent purple bruise stretching across it from his latest bar fight. He wants this ambulance to just get here already so he can use work as a distraction from, well, everything.

Beside him, Topher was texting his wife, and on the other side Krista and Drew were playing twenty questions (though grumpily he thinks it’s probably gone way into the hundred by now) and the questions are getting increasingly dirty and loud. TC rolls his neck to loosen up a little but it doesn’t really help. 

Suddenly Krista laughs loudly and catches the attention of him and Topher. This isn’t TC’s ideal distraction, but it will do.

“What’s so funny?” he asks, nudging her. She can’t speak from laughing and waves her hands in front of her face.

“Her question was ‘what was the worse sex I’d ever had’, so I told her.”

“That bad huh?” Topher raises an eye brow and TC feels a smile tugging at his face.

“That bad. What about you guys? It’s only fair they have to share too if you’re going to laugh at mine.”

Krista has calmed down and she shakes her head. “No, I’m going to ask them the opposite. What’s the best sex you ever had?” She wiggles her eye brow suggestively at them and Topher rolls his eyes, holding his hands up.

“To avoid any drama, I am going to say any time with my wife and leave it at that.”

“Well that’s boring. But it’s romantic, so you get a pass.” Krista says and Topher nods gratefully. “What about you TC?”

TC shrugs “I never said I was playing.”

The rest of them groan and push his shoulders. “Come on. Just this one question, I swear.”

 

TC sighs. He had no intention of really answering properly, but as he opened his mouth he paused. And for some reason, he wanted to tell them. He thinks about the bruise on his cheek, about how destructive he’s become. He thinks about how Jordan used to kiss the scars on his chest. He had lost so much, and he thought about that a lot, but never talked about it. He wants to remember when it had been good. Before he really makes the decision too, he starts talking.

“There was this one time…I got some leave, to come home, just for a few days. I hadn’t seen Jordan for months, I missed her like crazy. And as much as I knew she supported me, and she tried to sound happy whenever we talked or sent letters and videos and everything…I knew it was difficult for her. She got lonely and there wasn’t anything I could do to fix it. Except…then that night, there was. I didn't tell her I was coming, because I wanted to surprise her.

It was five in the morning when I pulled up to her place. I saw how some of the plants had died since I’d been there last, where she’d finally got round to re painting the door frame where it had been chipping away. 

When she pulled the door open, she was rushed and breathless. She was in a college old t shirt of mine and her hair was messy from where she’d been sleeping on it. Honestly, I don’t even think it registered with her that I was there for a minute. She looked at me, and I saw the exact moment she understood. I saw it break over her face in a second, as she cried and jumped up, crashing into me. She wrapped her arms around me and I lifted her up, her legs went around my waist. I’d missed feeling her against me more than I can explain. It was the single most familiar thing to me. She kissed my face over and over and I could feel tears on her cheeks.

I carried her inside, and when we fell into that bed…Jordan was and still is the most beautiful person I know. And I do know her. I know every inch of her. I knew her then, in that bed, I knew her more than I've ever known anyone. And when we were together, it was like finally coming home. Like everything started and ended with her, like that room was the whole world, that bed even, that pillow she laid her head on next to mine. There was no war, no death, nothing but her, and her hands, and her hair in my fingers.

Afterwards, we wrapped our arms around each other like cages, and she told me she loved me. It was only a whisper, a breath, but in the moment it was like a thunderclap. I realised that before that moment neither of us had said a word the whole time. That we hadn't needed too.”

There is a stunned silence when he finishes his story. No one had been expecting it, not even him. He didn't know that he had that stored up inside of him, hadn't really understood the truth of the words until he spoke them. 

To break the tension Topher clapped a reassuring hand on his shoulder and Krista smiled. “That was really…” she takes a deep breath and shakes her head. “Romantic. Far more romantic than yours Topher.”

Topher puts a hand on his chest in mock hurt. The rest of them then carry on conversing, moving on as TC composes himself.

They hear the wailing of ambulance sirens in the distance, and the other stand up to be ready for the patient. TC moves to join them. He hears the doors opening and Jordan comes out, standing next to him. He smiles at her but doesn't say anything. She shoots him a confused look and he turns to watch for the ambulance. Maybe one day he’ll ask her if she remembers that night the same way he does. Maybe he won’t ever mention it again. He doesn't think about that right now. He just thinks, for one moment, about how Jordan is stood next to him.

Then his distraction pulls up in front of them, and he goes back to work.


End file.
